Penn's overall score has
gone up a point since last year--now at 94 out
of 100--in the 2004 edition of the "America's
Best Colleges" guidebook from U.S.
News & World Report. There were
some slight shifts since last year among the
universities in the top five slots when the U.S.
News & World Report recently released
this year's list of "Best National Universities"--Doctoral
category. This time Penn is tied for fifth place,
along with California Institute of Technology,
Duke University and Stanford University. MIT,
which had shared fourth place with those schools
last year, has that slot to itself this time.
Harvard has joined Princeton in the top spot,
with Yale ranked third.

Penn was included in the
list of universities with the highest proportion
of classes under 20, with 73% in that category.
It also made the list of those with the lowest
acceptance rate, at 21%, while Harvard and Princeton
top that list at 11%.